In: Accounting
Distinguish between the plant wide overhead rate method, the departmental overhead rate method, and the activity-based costing method
In plant wide overhead rate a single rate is applied to distribute overheads in all the departments no matter which machine they use (Costly or inexpensive). This method is normally used when all the departments produce similar products which go through same kind of manufacturing process. It can be on the basis of machine hour or labour hour or as a % of direct cost.
In departmental overhead method , different rate are calculated for each department acc to the machine cost involved or Overhead incurred. This way the department in which costly machine is used gets more overhead allocation.This method is used when there are diverse products manufactured. So it can be possible that for dept 1 we use machine hours while for dept 2 we use labour hours.
Activity based costing costing is the best method. in this method , overheads are distributed into different activities and each activity has a different Cost driver. absorption rate for each activity is used for allocating overheads. For ex . packaging , Machine set up , machine maintenance etc.